PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — You could say there are two sides to Mikal. One, Mikal the entertainer; the other, Mikal the activist for LGBT rights.

“What’s important for me now is just to know before I go to bed at night that I have served my purpose and that I have outreached and helped as many people as I can in that day,” Mikal tells Wednesday’s Child.

He says he’s encouraged by the recent US Supreme Court decisions in favor of same-sex marriage (see related news story).

“America has changed, but it’s still taking baby steps,” Mikal says, “and for me to see that same-sex marriage has passed, now we have to pass it in the states.”

But foremost he’s focused on finding a permanent family. And he says that even at 17, he hasn’t given up hope.

“It’s important to have a family at 50, at two, at any age — it’s important to have a family,” he says. “Because if you don’t have a family, at the end of the day when you go to bed at night, you just want to know, ‘Who’s going to remember me?’ ”

For more information about adopting Mikal or any other “Wednesday’s Child,” go to the National Adoption Center’s web site, www.adopt.org, or call 215-735-9988.